The Little Things
by fowl68
Summary: "Well," He says finally. "At least you have the good sense not to buy those terrible ten gald romances." Shelos
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything!.

**Author's Note:** Got some of the ideas from Jack of All Trades. It's an awesome show. Sadly, much like Firefly, it only had one season.

For the words, I closed my eyes and pointed at random words in the dictionary. I needed something to break my FictionPress block, so I thought I'd do this.

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"_I read once that the ancient Egyptians had __50 words for sand and the Eskimos had 100 words for snow. I wish I had 1000 words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me when you sleep and there are no words for that."-Brian Andreas_

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**Familiar**

"Here, help me with this, won't you? Damn complicated dress, this is." Sheena held the front of the dress up while Zelos nimbly laced up the back. He tugged it a little tighter for good measure before tying it off. "Thanks."

"Can you tie this?" Zelos asked, gesturing at the tie. "It doesn't seem to want to cooperate with me today."

Sheena obliged, tying it with an ease that she'd learned over the many months of living with the man. "Remind me again why you chose me to be the peace ambassador? Especially if I have to wear stuff like this?"  
Personally, Zelos thought she looked beautiful, but then, he thought that of her when she fell asleep watching their films on the couch, in nothing but an old T-shirt and some sweatpants.

He grinned at her. "So I wouldn't have to suffer through this alone."

Sheena smacked him lightly and gathered the numerous skirts around her. The princess—soon-to-be-queen, really—wanted everyone dressed in, as she called it, 'proper' clothes. For Sheena, it meant a corset and full-length skirts, the kind that the Meltokio noblewomen liked. Zelos had to wear a suit and neither of them would have done it if they hadn't needed the Royal Family's favor in order to get help with rebuilding Palmacosta.

Sheena is in the process of tugging on those dreadful torture devices that the noblewomen call shoes while Zelos shrugged on the jacket when they both mutter under their breath, "I hate politics."

**Naked**

Zelos cracks open his eyes and shifts a little and he glances over his shoulder, trying to find the clock so he could check the time. Rather than the clock, he sees a familiar head of tousled ink-black hair and a gently tanned length of arm on top of the covers. Sheena's eyes blink once and look at him sleepily.

"Hey, Zelos." She murmurs as she buries her face into the pillow comfortably, turning away from the crack of sunlight spilling through the curtains and onto the bed.

"Mornin', darling." He replies, letting his eyes slip back closed as the lure of sleep called him.

It's an instant later that both of their eyes snap open and they're leaping away from the bed, Sheena with the blanket clutched around her and Zelos covering the important bits with a pillow.

Zelos, knowing Sheena as well as he does, knows that the anger is going to come in a few minutes, so he raises a hand to try and calm her down. "I'm sure there's a perfectly acceptable reason-"

"As to why we're naked in a bed together?" Sheena interrupts and he was right. The anger is already narrowing her eyes and clenching her fists into the fabric. "I think it's fairly obvious as to what that reason was!"

"Darling, calm down." He knew he was safe for the moment at least. She wasn't about to move very close to him just yet. "Let's think this out. Last night we were…"

"Celebrating with the others." Sheena recalled. "Ozette's town square had just been rebuilt and people were already planning to move back. There was some wine…"

"Damn good wine too. From Regal's cellar, wasn't it?"

"And obviously we must have gotten a little tipsy…"

"Well, we wouldn't be the first people to have this happen to them." Zelos reasoned.

"Holy…"Sheena sat down on the bed, a hand to her forehead. "Of all people, I had to sleep with _you?_"

"Hey, I take personal offense to that! I'm sure I wasn't _that_ bad!" Zelos sank down on the bed as well, sitting back to back with her.

"You've been known to be a bit of a manwhore, dear." There was no hate in the dry sarcasm, something that Zelos was fervently grateful for. She would forgive him for this. Granted, it wasn't entirely his fault, but in the face of Sheena's rage, there were no technicalities. There would be the normal awkwardness, the avoiding of each other's eyes until they grew comfortable with each other again.

"Being a flirt is not the same as a manwhore." Zelos argued.

Sheena opened her mouth to retort when there was knock on the door before Lloyd's head popped around the door. Zelos and Sheena glanced between each other and their companions, all of whom were visible through the door that Lloyd had opened almost all the way. How were they going to explain this situation?

**Family**

Sometimes, Zelos still finds that he is uncomfortable with a lot of people in his house. There had never been a great deal of people in his house. Ever. It had always been his mother, him and the servants and occasionally Seles.

But now, he's grabbing Lloyd another glass of spiced tea _(He'd been the first to get up from the table and the rule was that the person who got up had to comply with the requests of the people still seated at the table)_ and some basil for Genis who thought that the curry needed something.

Raine steps through the back door, a little late and her hair tousled from the strong winds and grabs the plate from Zelos before he drops it and serves herself a portion of the curry and rice before sitting beside her brother.

They argue and trade insults and stories, laugh and tease each other and fight for the last of the ice cream. It seems so _ordinary_ and almost like a snapshot of someone else's life.

**Lie**

Zelos was a very physical person. From the way his hands gestured as he talked to the constant movements of his clever fingers and the way you could sense his mood from the way he stepped on the stairs.

Sheena had learned that, being the physical person that he was, Zelos' tell was in his body, not in the expression on his face. When Zelos was being entirely honest with her_ (Something that happened a lot less now that their journey was over)_ it showed in the tension in his shoulders, the almost forced casual way that he held himself and the way that he always had a little difficulty in meeting her eyes.

Zelos knew that Sheena could read him easily. It had always been easy for her. Except for the time when it had really mattered _(when you betrayed her, his mind whispers and he has to stomp on that thought. She'd forgiven him, she _had!) He's been trying not to lie anymore, a habit that he's trying to break.

But he can't stop entirely because a part of him loves the lie, loves the thrill of keeping a secret and he wonders sometimes if Sheena can understand that.

**Spatula**

Zelos is like a child sometimes. Not often, these days, but it shows in the little motions of life. Like, when it's Sheena's turn to cook, he'll hook a stool to sit on and watch her with his head rested in his arms.

Sheena doesn't mind his eyes on her like she once did. Mostly because, at times like these, she knows that there is nothing sexual in the way he watched her. Sometimes, there was love and at those times, he'd come up behind her or catch her waist gently when she walked past him and would kiss her quickly before allowing her to continue with the making of the meal.

Sheena used to accuse him of being a pervert—she still does occasionally, now that he thinks about it—but it was more out of habit now than true disapproval. After spending so much time with him, Sheena's learned that Zelos does love women; he loves their soft curves, their sweet smells, their quicksilver natures. But she's also learned that there is a difference between loving women and loving _a_ woman.

Besides, Sheena reminds herself, she's the only one that he watches like _that_.

But when Zelos' hand sneaks around her waist to dip a finger in the pancake batter_ (he's terrible at making pancakes. He starts and then gets distracted and forgets about them)_, she raps his hand with the spatula, just like her grandfather used to do to her.

**Marriage**

"You don't want to marry this guy, right?" Zelos asks as he helps her fold the laundry.

"Of course not! But it's for the good of Mizuho. I have to."

"_You_ can't end the engagement, but what if _he_ does?"

Sheena blinks at her best friend and wants to groan aloud at the look in his eye. Nothing good ever came from that look. "What are you thinking?"  
"Oh, nothing. You're having dinner with him tonight?"

"Yeah. The engagement dinner." Zelos _knew_ that.

The grin he gives her is absolutely wicked and Sheena braces herself for tonight.

That night, she's dressed in a _yukata_ that was such a mixture of purples and indigos that it reminded all of the companions strongly of Derris-Kharlan. When her fiancée is deep in discussion with Regal beside him, Sheena looks at Lloyd.

'_Where's Zelos?_' She mouths and Lloyd shrugs in response.

It's at that next instant when the doors bang open and their heads whip around. There's a rather tall woman in a brilliantly coral pink gown and hair in sausage curls that were a color that the companions would know anywhere. Now, Sheena knows that Zelos has a feminine look sometimes, but the way that he'd (badly) applied the make-up make him look dreadful.

The fiancée, whoever, is staring. "Sheena, who…?"

Before she can come up with a convincing lie, Zelos (for it is undoubtedly him) smiles widely_ (nothing like himself)_ and cries, in a near shriek, "Sheena, dear, how could you disappoint your poor mother like this? Not letting me meet the man before you whisk him off to be married?"

The fiancée _(Sheena thinks she should know his name, but she can never bring herself to remember it)_ gapes at her. "Sheena, this is your mother?"

Sheena smiles and it doesn't feel at all forced because the situation is truly ridiculous. She stands and links her arm with her 'mother's'. "I...I wanted to keep it a surprise, Mum."

Zelos tsk's and takes a seat in front of the fiancée, gathering his skirts roughly around him. Sheena wonders where he got the dress in the first place. He folds his hands on the table and asks, "Now, do you have a good job?"

The poor fiancée blinks. "I am the mayor's son."

"I see." Zelos exchanges a look with Sheena that has her nearly laughing fit to burst. "And does that pay well? I can't have you marrying my daughter without being able to support her, after all."

"I have a rather large home, yes. With ten rooms."

Zelos grins widely. "Oh _wonderful!_ I can't wait to move in!"

The other man looks stricken. "No, I mean, it's ten rooms total. With the bathrooms, the kitchen, the basement, the closets and the pantries…"

He's having too much fun with it, Sheena thinks, when Zelos claps delightedly. "Oh, _coziness!_" Though they all have to admit (for no one had much liked the idea of Sheena marrying him at all, but it had been her decision) that it is rather amusing at the immediate draining of any color in the man's face. "How lovely! I'll sleep right in between my lovely daughter and," Zelos reaches forward and pinches the man's cheek. "Her lovely husband!"

The fiancee glances around the table, at Sheena and then back to Sheena's 'mother' before saying, in a remarkably calm-sounding voice, "Sheena, might I speak to you in the kitchen?"

Ten minutes later, Sheena is leaning down to kiss Zelos' cheek. "You're brilliant, have I ever told you that?"

Zelos grins.

"But," Genis says, leaning his forearms on the table, "If you wanted to wear women's clothing, all you had to do was ask Colette. I'm sure she would have been more than happy to oblige."

Everyone bursts out laughing and they toast to another crisis averted.

**Reflection**

Zelos has to double-check with her sometimes because he doesn't want to take too many wrong turns through this. He wants to do this right.

"So you really forgive me?" He asks her for the third time. They had been visiting with the elves and he'd made a joke involving her that the Elder hadn't quite understood and taken very literally. Now, they were walking to the edge of the forest before flying home.

"_Yes_, Zelos. I really forgive you." Sheena hadn't minded the joke at all. She'd laughed at it in fact. But when the Elder had cornered him and tried to accuse him of philandering and inappropriate acts, Zelos had, naturally, responded with more jokes in an attempt to lighten the mood which got them both thrown out of the dinner.

Zelos breathes a sigh of relief and stuffs his hands in his pockets. It was beginning to get chilly in this part of the world and he wished he'd brought his coat.

"Hey, look, Zelos." Sheena says, pointing into the water that rippled with giant catfish. "Your reflection."

Of course, Zelos had naturally looked where she'd pointed, putting his back to her. The next thing he knows, he's gasping for breath because that water was _cold _and there's a giant catfish that might be hungry for people _right there_.

Sheena smiles sweetly down at him. "Now I really really forgive you."

**Stanza**

Sheena had never had a great love for poetry. She could appreciate it, but she disliked reading it. Something about how the words fit together didn't sit right with her.

But Zelos, Sheena had discovered, loved poetry. Loved its fluid words and its structured stanzas. He had shelves and shelves of the stuff in the living room and that was just the authors of Tethe'alla. Sheena often accompanied him to the bookstores of Sylvarant that Raine had recommended where he would leave with a stack of books on poetry that was about half as tall as himself.

They both feel restless from time to time. So, on those nights, they'll both pad down the stairs and outside, pausing only so that Zelos can snatch a book off the shelf and Sheena will sit back on the garden wall, watching the stars and loving the cadence of Zelos reading aloud.

**Domineering**

"Uncle? Did you have to sleep on the couch _again?_"

Zelos looks over at the young voice. It's Lloyd's kid, with the same bright brown eyes that were tinted red in the rising sun. Zelos grins. He can hear Sheena coming down the stairs and Lloyd is still hanging up his and Colette's coats.

"Yes." Zelos tells the boy solemnly.

"Why?" The ex-Chosen can vaguely remember Lloyd's eyes being just as wide as this boy's. It had been a long time ago.

"Because your Aunt Sheena is very domineering."

Sheena, Colette and Lloyd are frowning at him over the boy's head. The boy is frowning as well, but in confusion. "I don't get what dumb earrings have to do with anything."

That makes them all burst out laughing and Sheena shakes her head as she bends to kiss Zelos good morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Don't own anything.

**Author's Note:** Was gonna keep working on Coffee and Spirits, but I found that I needed to look more into Zelos and Sheena's relationship as a whole rather than just a romance, so I got my trusty dictionary and pointed.

Kudos to anyone who can name the movie that I quoted in here,

-/-/-/

"_We are one and one. In Quadling thinking, one plus one doesn't equal a single unit of two. One plus one equals both."-Candle __**(Son of a Witch)**_

-/-/-/

**Fear**

Lloyd is the one to introduce them to one of his town's holidays. Everyone dressed up and went from door to door to ask for candy. All of the Tethe'allans thought this was a rather odd tradition, but joined in nonetheless.

After a few hours going from house to house, Zelos and Sheena sit on the side of the road and watch the costumed villagers. At one point in the evening, Sheena leans towards him and says, "Aren't the costumes supposed to be scary?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Sheena points to a girl dressed…well, there was no real polite way to describe how she was dressed. "Doesn't look scary to me."

Even Zelos, with his appreciation for women and their many different ways of dressing, thought that the girl was wearing a bit too little. "Not to me either. Don't tell me that that was one of your options for dressing up?"  
"It was, but it didn't look nearly so…revealing."

Zelos looked her up and down. She was dressed as a vampire mistress. The dark violet dress was tight enough to let you see her figure, but loose enough that it was comfortable. A gauzy shawl was over her shoulders and her face was startlingly pale with the make-up.

"Thank the Goddess for your better taste then."

**Huddle**

It isn't often that the heater breaks in winter, but those few times that it does, one of them will hurry down the hall with their blanket and slip into the other's bed. The first time it happened, Sheena nearly gutted him out of reflex and Zelos nearly had a heart attack to see her curled up right beside him, but after that it's expected and they know not to mention the fact that they wake up with their legs tangled and her arm around his waist the next morning.

**Nocturnal**

His midnight prowls around the mansion usually don't bother her. While Sheena was a light sleeper, she knew his familiar sounds as well as she knew the ticking of a clock and Genis' snores.

But there are the few times when she will wake and she'll find him walking in circles around the dinner table or making some odd concoction in the kitchen that sometimes tastes vile and other times will taste absolutely delicious.

Those times, Sheena will make them both a cup of coffee and lean on the cabinets on the far side of the kitchen. She likes to watch Zelos in the kitchen. It's something that never used to happen, but ever since their journey, it happened more and more.

A few minutes in, she'll start talking. It's never anything relevant. Usually it's just about whatever odd dream she was having before he woke her or some news from Mizuho. He'll usually comment on one thing or another and hop up to sit on the counter right beside where she was leaning. He'll toy with the ribbon in her hair or, on the nights when she forgets to tie her hair up for bed, he'll make little braids or just twirl some of the ebony strands between his fingers.

It continues until dawn comes and they squint into the sun because they've been sitting in darkness for so long. They glance at each other and shrug before making a fresh pot for their morning cup of coffee.

**Couch**

"I hate politics." She moved her book just in time as Zelos let himself fall on the couch beside her.

Sheena patted his head, which was on her lap. "I know. What'd they do this time?"

"Just more of the usual with the half-elf policy. They're still not convinced that half-elves are actual people."

"They won't be thinking that for a while. You know that."

Zelos shifted so he was lying on his back. But his legs were too long to stretch out entirely on the small couch, so he kept them bent. "Doesn't change the fact that they're morons."

"If it makes you feel any better, you can play the drunkard at the next party and spill wine all over them and their fancy clothes."

Zelos smiled up at her. "I knew there was a reason I called you a vengeful banshee."

The next instant, Zelos found himself in a short drop and a sudden stop. Sheena smirked down at his prone form on the floor. But then, it wasn't as though he hadn't expected it.

**Intimate**

Sheena is a stubborn woman. Zelos knows this well and had long ago learned how to handle the days when she'll work on her martial arts forms until she's exhausted and her legs are trembling. He knows from swordsmanship that you had to do the forms until they hurt. That way, the movements would be automatic in battle. But there was a line to how far you could push yourself and Sheena crossed it often.

Zelos pulled her into the mansion, up the stairs and into the bathroom. There were more bathrooms in the house, but the one he always used for this was the one that they shared and it was also the biggest. The bathtub was, as Sheena had called it on more than one occasion, a small swimming pool. She didn't fight him openly on it—she knew what he was going to do anyway, but she had to fight it for her own pride—but she dug in her heels and silently resisting.

When the bathwater was just this side of hot, he propelled her forward. Her instinctive step back gave him just enough time to switch hands so that one now gripped her arm and the other had a fistful of her sweat-soaked T-shirt. A hard shove forward and a swinging left up and she splashed in. He'd made sure not to actually drop her so that she wouldn't get hurt.

Sheena pushed her wet hair out of her face, now standing knee deep in heated water. "I don't need this."

"Yes, you do. And you're going to sit there and let that hot water soak the soreness out of your muscles."

Sheena glared and grumbled at him to get out and that she might as well take a bath now. He obliged and the door clicked close behind him. He heard the slap of wet cloth on tile and annoyed mutterings.

When Sheena emerges a half an hour later wrapped in a towel, she bumps her shoulder into his in annoyance. Before she can close the door to her bedroom on him, however, he slips inside.

"On your belly." He tells her.

"Zelos…" She begins warningly.

"You know that the soak is only the first part of the treatment. A rubdown is the second."

"I don't need your insane treatment! I'm fine."

Zelos doesn't say anything, he doesn't touch her. He just looks at her. She never argued with him when she was on the receiving end of that look and she stretched out on the bed.

"Darling, the towel needs to come off."

"In your dreams, Wilder."

"Relax. I'm not going to try anything. If you want, I'll turn around."

Sheena slips the towel off and throws it forcefully at his head before flipping the sheets up to her waist and lying facedown. After making sure she was as decent as could be in this situation, he moved to straddle her. She jerked a little underneath him and jumped when he took the bottle of oil from his pocket and poured some on her. It wasn't exactly warm.

"You can never buy a better-smelling one, can you?" Sheena says as he rubbed her tight muscles.

"It's to remind you not to do stupid things that put you in a position need it." He replied. They don't speak for a minute before he asks, "Do you ever think of learning an actual weapon?"

Sheena turned her head to look at him out of one eye. "What are you talking about?"

"You've got your cards and your fists, which are good weapons, but don't you ever think of fighting with a weapon that has an edge?"

"I have knives." Sheena protested.

"You hardly ever use them though." He gave her shoulders special attention. Her acrobatics tended to have them especially sore.

"I'm fine."

"Alright…How's Orochi?"

"In love." Automatically, Zelos feels protective. He knows that Sheena and Orochi grew up together and that they were close, but he'd never entirely trusted that Orochi's interest in her was platonic. Perhaps Sheena knows this because she continues. "He went on a surveillance mission to the Iselia area and met a girl. He doesn't have a clue as to what to do though."

Zelos can imagine that quite easily and relaxes a bit at the knowledge that it wasn't Sheena that Orochi was interested in. "So what's his plan?"

"Flowers, chocolates, the whole shebang."

"He's really going all out."

"Mmhmm. And I may have suggested that he ask you for help."

Zelos leaned forward until he could look at both of her eyes. "Seriously?"

"Don't sound so surprised. Aren't you the one always bragging about how you're such a ladies' man?"

"Of course I am. Who could resist these looks? But I'm surprised you suggested me for it."

"He needs the help."

"That he does."

Zelos gets off of her and tugs the sheet up to her shoulders and leans back until his head hits a pillow. The other times that this has happened, they usually end up in this position. It's something that Lloyd and the others have no idea about. It's their time to talk about whatever subjects their relaxed minds decide to bring up.

But after a while, Sheena won't reply and Zelos will turn his head and see that she's nodded off. Zelos isn't usually tired during the day, but he's relaxed enough right now that he finds himself falling asleep to the even measure of Sheena's breathing.

**Moonlight**

Before Sheena left for Sylvarant and before they'd ever met anyone named Lloyd Irving, they used to sit on the couch on lazy summer evenings and watch old films. There would be a bowl of strawberries or cherries between them and occasionally, they'd end up fighting with the whipped cream.

Sheena always remembers a line from one of their favorites.

_Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?_

It's almost a year after they return from their journey. They're not the same people they were when they left. There are scars that hadn't been there before and they see little touches of darkness in everything now, despite having for so long traveled with optimists and dreamers.

Sheena comes downstairs one evening because it is yet another sleepless night. The nightmares won't go away and she can't make herself stop thinking of 'What ifs?' Somehow, she isn't surprised to find Zelos coming back from the kitchen with a plate of blackberries_ (because cherry and strawberry juice were red and they'd seen so much red, though really, red should mean hope to them now thanks to Lloyd, but their human instinct is telling them that red still stands for something much more macabre)_

Sheena sits beside him like those summer nights and they watch that movie again. But they can't anticipate their favorite line in that movie anymore because they had danced with a devil_ (but Mithos wasn't really evil. He was broken and lost and so brilliant and so powerful for all that he was still a boy frozen in time)_ and while it hadn't been in the moonlight _(Because they'd been high up enough that the moon wasn't in view anymore)_ and they try not to remember that time if they can help it.

**Tight**

Zelos' eyebrows disappeared into his hairline when Sheena walked out. "Darling, you look…" There were words that he could use to describe how Sheena looked, but she'd likely kill him if he used any of them.

Sheena futilely tugged the black skirt lower down her thighs. She wasn't sure whose idea it had been to give her this costume, but she was going to murder them. "I look like a slut."

"Well, I was going to go for amazing," That was a partial lie, but no need to tell her that. "But that could work too."

**Wife**

When the foreign diplomats come to meet Tethe'alla's Chosen, Zelos keeps his arm around Sheena's waist and introduces her as his wife. The first time he did it, Sheena had glanced at him, bewildered. But he'd explained it to her later that if he didn't do that, they'd be lining up to try and marry him.

Understanding that, Sheena accepts the arm around the waist and the occasional kisses to the cheek. But she remembers to get him back by spiking his drink and giving him one hell of a hangover the next morning.

**Notice**

Sheena had expected Zelos to comment when she came downstairs, dressed for the day, in a skirt. Of her own free will. It was loose enough that she could fight and stitched with flowing patterns. But he doesn't say a word. In fact, he doesn't seem to notice that she's in a skirt at all.

But he does notice. How could he not? She looks lovely in it. But he knows that if he were to comment, she'd hide the skirt away and he might never see it again.

**Belfry**

"You do realize this is a crime, right?" Sheena whispered.

"That damn bell ringing every hour is a crime." Zelos hissed back. It had kept them awake for two nights now.

"So your plan is to _steal_ it?"

"Got a better one?"

Sheena thought hard, and then shook her head. "No."

"Then come on. We gotta get this thing on the Rheaird and get it out of here."

"Where, exactly, are we dumping it?"

"In the ocean. It'll make a nice home for some fish."

"Zelos, I'm not sure I've ever told you this before, but you're insane."

"Love you too, darling."


	3. 50sentences

**Disclaimer:** Don't own anything!

**Author's Note:** I've been seeing this 50sentence thing around a lot and I wanted to try it as well as try and get my mind back on Tales of Symphonia (I've been playing a lot of Arc Rise Fantasia and catching up on my shows), so this kinda kills two stones with one bird.

-/-/-

_Love is not blind - it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less. ~Julins Gordon_

-/-/-

**Step**: It's a children's game; avoid the cracks in the sidewalk. But it's one she's never played before because Mizuho didn't have cement floors and the games of children back home were considered training, not recreation.

**Squeeze**: There's a fist clenched around her heart and it's just _twisting_ with every word that Zelos says._ (But in the end, I choose this side because Mithos promised to release me from my fate as a Chosen of Mana)_

**Dirt**: They're sweaty and dirty and breathing hard as they lie on their backs in the fields outside of Meltokio after a hard spar, but they can't seem to remember being more at ease.

**Late**: Tardiness wasn't acceptable in Mizuho. You were whacked with a bamboo stick for it, but clearly, Meltokio had given Sheena a new opinion on the subject.

**Money**: It isn't that he can't afford an expensive ring. It's that he knows that she hates people spending a lot on her, so he asks Dirk to make her a ring of steel. _(Because steel is stronger than gold and Sheena was the strongest woman he'd ever met)_

**Aid**: After the final battle, his leg is twisted at an unnatural angle and she has to splint his leg because Raine was out of magic.

**Myth**: She still feels a bit like she's dreaming as she runs a hand across the smooth warmth of his wings.

**Piece**: In Mizuho, the entire village works as a whole. Nothing was done solely for one persons' benefit. When Sheena arrives in Meltokio, she's unnerved by how independent and self-serving everyone is.

**Child**: The Tethe'allan royalty and the church that is now little more than a symbol for what was aren't accustomed to the new system yet. So when they tell Zelos that the Chosen bloodline has to continue, he simply stares at them for a moment before turning on his heel and walking away. He and Sheena had already agreed that they didn't want children.

**Confess**: It's the first time she's ever heard him stutter and she laughs and tells him to just shut up and kiss her.

**Trick**: When Lloyd blows out his candles for his eighteenth birthday, Zelos relights them magically with a gesture that he hides underneath the table. He does it a few times before Genis catches him and threatens him with the punishment of no ice cream if he does it again.

**Out**: When they tell everyone about them, Raine only chuckles. "You didn't think you were a secret, did you?"

**Best**: Sheena loves the way that Zelos makes curry, but she must admit that she liked Genis' better.

**Mother**: He looks very much like his father, or so he's been told. He finds it difficult to remember the man. But there is one thing that he knows for certain is from his mother and those are his pale pale blue eyes.

**Book**: Zelos plucks the novel out of her hands, ignoring her automatic protest. He flips through it, reads the back and examines the cover. "Well," He says finally, "At least you have the sense not to buy those terrible ten gald romance novels."

**Victim**: She tries to block out Kuchinawa's voice _(You're the reason that half the village is dead!)_ but it echoes and twists until all she can see is the red of his clothes. When Zelos opens her bedroom door, having heard some strange sounds, she looks at him with a haunted, hollow expression. Or rather, at his hair.

**Power**: He, as the former Chosen, and she as the new peace ambassador and Chief of Mizuho, can legally change the world now. It's a strange thought.

**Redeem**: It takes her a year and a half to forgive his betrayal and even that involved copious amounts of fudge given to her as part of his apology.

**Bleak**: Some of Meltokio's mornings are gray and a little depressing. They're usually a sign of coming snow. But by that time, it's already getting chilly and neither of them can bring themselves to care and they just snuggle deeper into the blankets.

**Shrapnel**: Sometimes, Sebastian swears that the mansion is going to come down around them with the force of their arguments.

**Humane**: Her personality is entirely at odds with her skills_ (Too kind, too compassionate, even for all her passion)_ but the truly sad part is that she's still the best one for the job.

**Ange**r: They don't cringe in the face of each other's anger like other people do_ (Because they're not afraid of the rage. They're afraid of the disappointment, of the hatred)_ They snarl and snap at each other, but it's normal and expected. It's when they don't rage at each other that they know that there's something wrong.

**Team**: She's a tornado and he's a wildfire; it makes for constant arguments that sometimes get too violent_ (It's only after their passionate anger that they calm down enough to make sure that the other's okay, not that they would intentionally maim each other)_. It's when they're both whipping around, snarling and tempers flaring against the same person that it becomes frightening.

**Final**: He knows that he won't be able to come back from this, that this is the last straw in their complicated relationship. But that was what happened when a tornado and a wildfire mixed. People got burned.

**Terror**: When Seles calls early one morning and says, "I have something to tell you, big brother." Zelos begins to panic. When he hears the rest of the message, the panic doesn't lessen; it increases in fact. When he repeats the message to Sheena, her face pales and she shakes her head. "Who ever thought you'd make a good uncle/godfather has to be out of their mind."

**Bed**: Some mornings, it finds that he can't remember a morning when he hadn't woken up to her by his side.

**Never**: There were a hundred things she would've liked to say _(Shout, yell, protest)_ when Tiga told her of the mission, but she could say none of them because this was for the good of Tethe'alla and shadows can't have opinions.

**Fidelity**: The others aren't entirely convinced that Zelos is loyal to her. Sheena had stopped trying to convince them otherwise a while back. They didn't know him like she did.

**Neglect**: They enter the forgotten cabin at the bottom of a hill on the outskirts of Ozette. There are several layers of dust on cracked, wooden furniture and the last vestiges of paint on the walls are peeling away. The weeds are up to their knees and Sheena thinks that she hates Time in that moment.

**Face**: "You know, that mask doesn't hide who you are at all, right?"

**Lurk**: Sheena is fourteen when she hears the tap on her window. She huffs in annoyance and opens it up, but smiles at who she finds at the bottom. "Zelos, if you insist on lurking beneath my windowsill, please tell me that you don't have a stereo."

**Grow**: When she saw him last, his hair had been long, for a guy. Now, it's longer even than hers, but she knows better than to ask after the dark story behind his eyes.

**Skin**: "You should've let me put on the sunscreen." He tells her and Sheena glares at him in annoyance.

**Sick**: She's a natural early-riser, but there's a morning or two every moon that she doesn't leave her room until noon, sometimes at all. Those days, Zelos brings her a tea that helped with the stomach cramps, some noodles and rice and a pack of cards.

**Dare**: Kuchinawa thinks that the girl has more guts than half the kids in the village. No one went into Gaoracchia Forest, not even on a dare.

**Worth**: _"I always knew you were a pervert, but I always thought you were a good person when it came down to it!"_ Zelos can only hope that that Aionis is worth Sheena's hatred.

**Year**: The ushering in of the New Year is celebrated worldwide, but their party is a small one. There are toasts and Lloyd and Genis are trying not to burn themselves as they spark off fireworks. But when the new dawn breaks the horizon, Zelos turns to her and kisses her deeply, murmuring against her lips, "Happy New Year, darling."

**Prime**: Sebastian looks like he's in his prime, or that it's not far behind him, but he swears that keeping up with Master Zelos and Sir Bud's antics are aging him quicker. Sheena assures him that that's perfectly normal.

**Taste**: Zelos gasps in surprise and he scrapes his burned tongue against his teeth, trying to get some feeling back. Sheena should've told him that the cocoa was hot.

**Event**: Zelos is the best Healer that's in the village at the time of the birth. Sheena chuckles when it's over, kissing his forehead and pushing his hair out of his face. "I don't know who was panicking more." She tells him. "You or the father."

**Safe**: She isn't sure when Meltokio became more of a home than Mizuho did, but she can't feel their accusing eyes here and she welcomes it.

**Ring**: Neither of them wears their rings on the proper finger. They don't even wear it on their hands because they're far too active and constantly doing things that require free hands and they're afraid that they'll lose it, so they keep it on a chain made of gold-and-steel.

**Mend**: "Would you just…hear me out?" He pleads. She needs to hear this, she _does_, or they might never get back what they had and he doesn't think he can stand that.

**Energy**: Sheena's usually fairly mild-mannered about her opinions. But when a debate sparks up on something she's passionate about, it's incredible how she seems to light up.

**Center**: Once a year, Sheena walks to where the Tower of Salvation once stood_ (Where everything had trained, where the center of the worlds used to be)_ and simply stares at the ruins.

**Ordinary**: "We can never babysit the normal kids, can we?" Zelos says, looking at Lloyd's child whose wings are flapping behind him to help him keep his balance on chubby legs.

**Voice**: He hears her speak before he ever sees her face. "Is watching where you're going such a hard thing to do, Red?" Sometimes, he thinks that's when he started falling in love with her.

**Fall**: "I'll always be there when you fall." He tells her one night. "You're like a double feature. A mild cold. A—" "I get it." She interrupts. "Things you catch."

**Last**: They both hold out their fists and play rock-paper-scissors to decide who got to eat the last strawberry on the cheesecake.


End file.
